Happy Birthday to Me!

A big thank you to my family and friends for making my birthday so special. =) I had lots of fun! It was indeed a very happy day for me.

The Amazons. Female Warriors and Heroines.

The Greeks have always been a source of fascination for scholars and anthropologists alike. The Greeks’ deep history and colourful culture is indeed rich materials for research and further studies.

One huge component of the study in Greek history and culture, is Greek mythology. I was blessed to be able to study a module on Greek mythology, and ever since I have always been intrigued by anything Greek.

It was by chance that the National Geographic (NG) channel was showing “The Riddles of The Dead“, in which they embarked on unraveling the truth behind the Amazon myth. In short, the Amazons were said to be a race that was matriarchal, and they were characterised by their brave and beautiful women warriors.

In the NG video documentary, they were trying to prove a theory that the Amazon myth was actually a real story, or at the very least it was inspired by a tribe who were led by such women warriors. As the documentary unfolds, archaeological evidences that were unearthed from Russia and in another part of the world was shown. These evidences were mainly the graves of the women warriors who had died in battle some 2500 years ago, and were buried in a warrior fashion, along with their accompanying war equipment like arrows. This suggests that at some point in historical times, there were indeed tribes who had women warriors.

However, as the story goes, the warrior women were said to have been last seen living in Samarian (or at least that was what I gathered from the two second glimpse of the map that they flashed). The main archaeologist, excited with her findings, sets out to investigate one of her theories that these women warriors were nomads who travelled and hunt for the sake of their livelihoods, and travelled away from Samarian. Her findings led her Eastward of Samarian to a place called Mongolia.

Mongolia composes of mainly nomadic tribes, and most of them are still living like how their ancesters lived. The matriarchal system is still very much in placed, and the mothers have the heavy responsibility in ensuring that the family stays together and is able to make ends meet.

As the documentary concludes, it showed that these Mongolia normads do carry war equipments (e.g. bow and arrows) that were replicas of those used by the Amazons. Additionally, the motifs that are embellished on their clothings were similiar to those depicted by the Amazons’ pictures painted on Greek vases. These were strong factors suggesting that these Mongolians were descendents of the women warriors. However, they were not strong enough evidences to link the two tribes together.

Fortunately, the documentary ends on a good note. The main archaeologist found a nine year old girl in the far West of Mongolia who was the crucial piece to the puzzle. Even though this girl had Mongolian features, she had blond hair and hazel eyes which were not characteristics of Mongolians. A mitochondrial test revealed an astonishing find. This girl had the same mitochondrial as that of one of the women warriors found in the graves.

Thus the women warriors did exist in the past and their legend and bloodline still exists today. It is also likely that these women warriors inspired the Amazon myths. But were they the Amazons themselves? That is something that will be answered in the future.

Happy 2009

The whole world celebrates the beginning of 2009.

As we just kissed 2008 goodbye, may the good Lord brings lots of joy, love and hope this coming year.

Let’s refresh ourselves and do things we have not done before.

Perhaps a different hair cut. Perhaps a change in style. Or maybe injest some humour and enjoyment at work.

Whatever it is, I wish you lots of love and blessings this very 2009.

Cheers.